Trailer Tyre Maintanence

[Lowe119]

How do you keep trailer tyres from weather-cracking? A car enthusiest told me a couple years ago, that Armor All is actually not good for tyres. He said something about drying them out or something. Is there something that works?

[Super Dave]

The sun is the enemy.

There are some products that work ok, but I don't know if they will always keep the tire from cracking.  There are companies that make covers for the tires so that they don't get RV rays that help break the tire down so bad.

[spyderchick]

Well, that's only if you park next to an RV. Dave go get some sleep! :o ;) I'm sure you meant UV rays.

[Lowe119]

lol  :D I was wondering about those RVs

[sanee]

 ;D
RV rays ;D ;D ;D

[motomon]

It is highly recommended that you protect your trailer tires, because of the expense, hassle of changing on the way to/from/at a race weekend, and risk of a catastrophic failure while driving. Especially here is the South, and particularly when the trailer spends most of it's time sitting in one place, tires are damaged quite quickly by UV rays.

An easy and cheap solution for protecting against the sun's UV rays is to cut a a rectangular piece of plywood that is round at the top to match the shape of the fender so that you can just barely slip it under the fender while it sits vertically on the ground. That way the wind won't blow it over.

By the way, there are basically two types of commercial covers you can buy; plastic and cloth. The cloth ones are less durable, but better because the plastic ones hold moisture and the wheels will tend to rust.

The advantage to commercial or homemade covers vs. plywood is portability. The reality is that for most of us, the vast majortity of the time, the trailer is sitting somewhere between races. Therefore, the simple and cheap plywood covers can be left wherever the trailer is kept when not going to races.

[Super Dave]

RV...LOL...I was just getting back from Summit... 8)